Courting controversy on 'Lost'
Well, we're about third of the way through a truncated Season 4 of Lost, and as such, it's high time to take a step back and look at some of the controversies that have popped up both here on the blog and over on the recaps as well. The recap for "Eggtown" is up to 127 comments now (and counting), which means you all out there in Internet-Land sure have a lot to say about the season thus far.
Given the incredible output of comments lately, I thought it best to try and sum up what I see as the biggest points of contention to date, using your feedback as a basis for this list. So let's get to it!
#1) The issue of time travel in the show.
Absolutely nothing has caused more debate that the issue of time travel in the show. I thought Daniel Faraday's rocket experiment in "The Economist" would have sealed the deal, but apparently, that 31-minute gap didn't solve a darn thing for the most obstinate of the anti-time travel contingency.
I'm less concerned with trying to explain the mechanisms of time travel so much as just pointing out that there IS some fashion of time travel happening in the show. Because it doesn't necessarily fall into typical sci-fi tropes of time travel, people are alternatively confused and annoyed by the way the show's handling it, but as I see it, the show's actually trying to deal with the "what if?" of time travel in the most realistic way possible. (See Issue #5 for more on this.)
That doesn't mean they'll succeed, mind you: I actually think dealing with it in a "realistic way" opens up more potential plot holes than the typical New England back road, but when Damon Lindelof says, "To actually have characters traveling through time has to be handled very deftly," I mean, how can you argue against that?
Well, here's one potential way.
#2) The issue of "canon"/"non-canon" material.
The most recent, and to me, most acute controversy is this whole debacle in which, during the same interview linked above, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse informed the unwashed masses that Find815, the alternate reality game that served as a precursor to Season 4, was in fact "not canon." This essentially rendered the entire game, which called upon fans to spend large chunks of their January to return to the game site in order to find new content slowly dripped out over the course of a few weeks, nothing more than a pleasant diversion.
Now, many of you really, really couldn't care less that it is the case. You either didn't play the game in the first place, or don't care that what you invested in could have been equally achieved by watching the first two minutes of "Confirmed Dead." However, to others, such as myself, this represented a pretty severe breach between the show and its rabid fan base: that section that consumes every episode, dissects every scene, and yes, talks about it religiously on blogs and forums on the Internet.
The end of Find815 strongly suggested a plot point that would ostensibly be fleshed out during Season 4. As such, many looked at events in Season 4 through the prism of the insinuations of the ARG. So, when Darlton reveals such preconceptions were false, we were...well, less than pleased. It's one thing to construct a mystery in which it's difficult for the audience to solve it; it's another to construct a mystery in which it's impossible for the audience to solve it. I love Lost for the former, but feel the revelations about Find815 have temporarily turned it into the latter.
It's obviously a fluid situation, and hopefully this is just a hiccup along the way and a lesson in terms of communicating the validity of these ancillary materials going forth.
#3) The issue of Aaron's place in the "Oceanic 6."
First off, let's state this for the record: that was Aaron. THE Aaron. Claire's Aaron. It wasn't some kid named "Eric," and it wasn't Kate's biological child that she named Aaron. That latter interpretation is straight up creepy. Imagine if the show asked us to believe one of its heroines pulled a Single White Female and turned her own offspring into the spitting image of Claire's child. Just can't see that happening.
The larger controversy, however, centers around whether or not we now know five of the six members of the "Oceanic 6." There are two equally compelling ways to look at this, and since I don't know the ultimate six (and if you do, for the love of Dharma, do NOT post insider knowledge below), I'll try and sum up the two points of view here:
- Since Aaron hadn't been born yet at the time of the flight of Oceanic 815, he doesn't count. Only people who were on the plane (in a non-fetal way) count, which rules Aaron out.
- The "Oceanic 6" title suggests a media-driven derivation of the name, and they wouldn't really squabble about whether or not Aaron was born or not. The "six" in question merely refer to the six people found after the wreckage of Oceanic 815 was discovered by the Christiane I.
Both are compelling arguments. I personally feel the latter is a bit of a cop out, but I can't see it as a real detriment to the story. What's important about Aaron concerns not his status as one of the Oceanic 6, but the whereabouts of Claire. That's a fantastic mystery, and as such, this controversy concerns me less that the first two on this list.
4) The issue of Miles Straume being Marvin Candle's son.
A reader threw this out last week, and I can't decide if it's rather brilliant or rather racist. You be the judge!
5) The issue of the man in the coffin.
Given the flash forwards this season, the man in the coffin looms ever larger. None of the flash forwards this season take place after the flash forward seen in "Through the Looking Glass," which means as the Island action leads inexorably towards the event that takes the Oceanic 6 off the island, actions post-Island are leading inexorably to Jack telling Kate they have to go back.
Of the people we've seen in flash forwards, we can rule out Jack and Aaron. The "he" Kate refers to in "Looking Glass" is Aaron, as evidenced by "Eggtown." And given Darlton's approach to time travel, I refuse to believe there are two Jacks running around L.A. under different names. (More on this in a bit.) That leaves Sayid, Hurley, and Ben as men that we've seen in the future as potential options.
In addition, there are a host of other possibilities, depending on the paths the story chooses to take. Michael's a definite possibility, as is Locke. Heck, I could see Faraday or Lapidus being in there as well. Lots of story to mine with these two as well.
If I had to be a betting man, I'd have to say it's Ben at this point, in that the death of Ben would truly seal off the Island to Jack for good, which would prompt Jack to attempt suicide. But given there's so much story to go, I wouldn't put more than $5 down on that bet.
A quick note on the "two Jacks" paradox noted above: I'm really curious to see why The Orchid video was so important to this year. Here it is again for your enjoyment/perusal:
I think the shift "negative 20" is the key to it: leaving the Island spits you out ahead in time, but going to the Island sends you back in time, unless you enter in a certain way. Going forward doesn't pose much of a problem, but going back means that Edgar Halowax soils himself.
That's as good as I can figure out out for now. But I definitely welcome your insight into this, or any of the other controversies listed above!
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.
It is obvious that time-travel is a part of the narrative of LOST at this point. Those that feel it is not are living in denial.
I, like many others, invested a lot of time into FIND815. I am not happy that is said to be non-canon, but it was a good game nonetheless. I agree that they should have mentioned this ahead of time, or had a writer and/or producer involved with its design.
I don't believe Aaron is 1 of the Oceanic 6. They would considered him as 1 with Kate. The reveal of another Oceanic 6 for this episode was Kate. There was a lot of speculation as to her actually being one of them.
I don't believe Miles Straume is related to Marvin Candle. It is kind of racist to think that just because he is oriental.
The man in the coffin is probably the biggest mystery of the season next to who are the Oceanic 6. I'm not thinking it is Ben, but rather Miles or Michael.
What if there's two Bens walking around? One on the Island, one out in the world, both working toward the same goal? Namely, to prevent people from coming or going to the Island (and in the future, punishing their enemies). It would be even more amazing if they knew each other, communicated through maybe the Flame, but could never physically meet in person, lest they create an Orchid paradox.
But this is just fantasy; there's enough evidence, like the p***ports, to show that there's only one Ben that is going to and from the Island.
Regarding the coffin; you have to consider a) the size of it, which seems to indicate it was a short person, and b) the fact that NO ONE showed up for the viewing. Only Jack showed up, after it was over already.
Michael and Locke at least had people from their pre-Island lives who would have gone (Walt, Michael's parents/siblings, Locke's ex-girlfriend, etc). Ben had no one but Alex, who hates him (and I don't think gets off the Island anyway), and Annie, who is ***umed to have died long ago.
Speaking of two Ben's, that was a thought I had after The Economist. Except rather than working together I wondered if Ben was both Sayid AND Elsas boss.
If Aaron is considered the fifth member of the O6 it opens up the possibility that one of the couples(Jin/Sun or Rose/Bernard) could be end up being seperated. I'm still dying to know how he ended up with Kate and what the story they told to the world was. If the story is that she was already pregnant when she boarded the flight, it makes Jacks testimony about her saving everyone even more compelling.
As to the canon issue with respect to Find815, it seems to me that Darlton's comments can be taken in one of two ways:
1. Because the material is not canon, it is not essential to be familiar with it in order to have a complete understanding of the show, which is intended to be a self-contained narrative.
2. Because the material is not canon, it is irrelevant, and the show may ignore or even affirmatively contradict the events of Find815.
I can see why interpretation 2 would be annoying, perhaps infuriating, to those who invested ample time in the game (full disclosure: I was not one of those, though I did read through the materials on lostpedia). But if all Darlton meant was the rather benign interpretation 1, I think that would be fine. There seemed to be some people who were frustrated that they didn't have the patience or time to play the ARG's, and perhaps the comments were merely intended to re***ure those people that the projects were intended to be self-contained.
An example: I did not play the Lost Experience, and did not see the explanation of the significance of the Numbers and the Vallenzetti Equation (again, on Lostpedia) until only a few months ago. If the show were now to provide some contradictory explanation of the Numbers, that would indeed be absurd and infuriating. But the narrative of the show now seems to essentially ignore the Numbers, or just to accept them without the background explanation. And I don't think knowing about the VE is necessary at all to understanding the show.
Did not the producers state before the game that it would not advance any plot points and was not necessary to follow the Lost plots? That told me that it was just meant to be fun - not informative.
To be honest, what intrigues me MOST about Aaron appearing is 1) if Jack knows Aaron is his nephew and 2) whether or not Jack knows, why doesn't he want to see him!?
Also, regarding the time disruption between the island and "the real world," I tend to agree with you, Ryan. However, while I think the flash forwards are most telling - we have only TWO characters in the flash forwards to help us figure this out - those two characters have been contradictory. 1) Jack's wife was pregnant and does not seemed to have aged much. 2) Kate's mom looked really bad, and I know she is terminally sick, but I wondered if she was supposed to have aged more so than Kate. I know cancer can come on fast and make you look awful, but it seems to me some major aging would have occurred there. No one else we've seen can help us figure out the timeline in the flash forwards, depending on how long they've been off the island in them. Finally, I could see that time difference as the reason they are so famous? Why would the Oceanic 6 be so famous for being found and then receiving a big settlement. It seems to me that kind of famous would wear off rather quickly and not last to the point of people always recognizing them as one of the Oceanic 6, but not having aged after so long and being found what is years later to the outside world after the crash might....
This is a liitle off the topic than what ryan has discussed above but has the comment Jack made in the hospital about going up to his father office and seeing how drunk he was (the Looking gl*** episode) been debate as to what it meant? Is his father actually alive?
I think Jack is just drunk/high when he mentions his dad. Especially since when he says it the other doctor gives him a reaction like he's nuts - definitely could be a "WTF" look.
And I don't think Kate's mom looks that much older, she looks how I'd expect someone to look after fighting cancer for four years.
I think it's just time to let the whole find 815 thing go. Until the show contradicts it (which I ***ume they'll try to avoid), go ahead and think of it as canon if that makes you feel better. If it turned out to be just "pleasant diversion" is that really a bad thing?
As for "time travel" I think the rocket shows that there's funky stuff going on with time, but that doesn't prove that people or things can *travel* through time. I think it's just like narnia - people can't go backward and forward or run into their future/past selves - the clock just runs slower on the island, like einstein's time dilation.
I suggested a long tine ago that Miles may be related to Marvin Candle-not so much because he's asian, but because of his seeming extreme anger about Ben. It made it seem like he had a very personal bone to pick with him, as would be the case if Marvin had died in the purge. I also thought it because of how they both have anglo-saxon names- I had thought that it was some type of hint. I can't believe that someone would think that those ideas are racist!