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Twitter'Lost': Landing on a jet plane, Part 3
My fellow brothers and sisters in all things "Lost", know I am not a cruel soul. My momma done raised me right. While imperfect, my moral compass more or less points towards Santa's abode. I feel the need to continually reiterate this during my week-long prayer that Oceanic 815 always and ever crashes on the Island.To quickly summarize my take until now: I argued that the video evidence from Comic-Con suggesting that The Incident changed history, including the fate of Oceanic 815's flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, bothers me on an almost molecular level. Then, I tried to show the first half of my two-part argument as to why it bothers me so much: namely, that removing their trials and tribulations not only potentially renders their accomplishments over the past five seasons null and void, but also might represent The Man in Black's ultimate triumph in removing Jacob's Army from existence. In short: Jughead was nothing less than The Man in Black's secret weapon.
But let's forget The Man in Black today. What do we know about him, other than his propensity to eat an early breakfast while plotting to kill his nemesis? Not a lot. But we DO know a lot about the survivors of Oceanic 815. And while it's hard to categorize anyone's time on the Island as anything approximating "pleasant," I think the show would argue that "pleasant" isn't the point or purpose to one's life. This isn't "The Love Boat," people. Just because life on the Island might hurt doesn't mean it's not the place in which one's life can truly be fulfilled.
As a thought experiment, let's look at the potential future lives of certain survivors had they successfully landed in Los Angeles versus on the Island.
Jack: Would have buried and then eventually turned into his father
Kate: Would have ended up in jail, alone and unloved
Charlie: I sense "OD" by Christmas
Locke: Spending $2.99/minute to talk to another "Helen"
Claire: Gives up her child to strangers
Sawyer: Continuing to con and search in vain for the real Sawyer
Sun/Jin: Divorced
Bernard: Widowed
So forth and so on. Even for those not guaranteed of facing doom after landing, none of them would have faced a life in which their best selves could have emerged. Atop the Orchid, Locke referred to the Island as a place "where miracles happen," but I prefer to look at it as a place where potential can be achieved. The downside? It's also the place in which one's worst side can take over. One side is light...one is dark.
To me, this is crucial in understanding the stakes of the Island. It's NOT about bringing people to the Island in order to transform them into noble, moral heroes or drag them into the pit of villainy. While Jacob and The Man in Black each have their own methods of "persuasion," the true power resides within any individual that finds him- or herself on the Island's shores. As I've stated before, Jacob and The Man in Black are powerful but not omnipotent. And even more crucially, they are NOT the most important players in the "Lost" universe. Everyone on Oceanic 815 is ultimately more important than they are. OK, maybe not Arzt. But just about everyone.
Why all this analysis? Because the use of the word "fate" in the world of "Lost" has always bugged me. Hell, the word "fate" bugs me. But while I didn't like the Season 5 finale as much as some of you, it did provide a way for me to look at the word "fate" in a new way. It doesn't refer to irrefutable causality in which a person is inexorably pushed into a corner until given only one possible option. That's my cynical view of the word's usual connotation. But that's not quite the way it works in "Lost." In the show, "fate" ended for the Lostaways the moment they crashed onto the Island. From there on in, they were on their own.
And so now we come full circle back to the Shakespearean quote which kicked off all this analysis: ""Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." The Island offers a fourth option: the possibility of greatness. It's that "possibility" that overrides the notion that these people are but players dangled by strings from the invisible forces given shape at the end of Season 5. Possibility means they can succeed as never before. Possibility means they can fail in ways they never could imagine. But the possibility always ever exists for both. It's what these people, with their innate best and worst selves always waiting to emerge, do with these possibilities that defines both them and the show as a whole.
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Ryan,
Are you old enough to remember Dallas and the lost season? This whole discussion reminds me of that and how ****ed the fans were for wasting a whole season watching a story unfold only to find out the whole season was a dream on the part of one of the characters. With Lost and the alternate timeline scenario we will have spent the last 5 seasons watching a story develop that is totally pointless. A complete waste of time. Tell me it ain't so.
If the plane lands at LAX, I don't think that means the characters can't reach the development they have achieved while being on the island. I feel certain we'll see them land (there are just way too many clues pointing to this) but I am also certain the writers will find a way to get the characters where they are now, and not at the sad list of results above. I gotta believe!
p***enger.
Just testing to see if it gets rid of the *** in p***enger.
Stupid!!!!!!
Ryan, spot on dude. TPTB may have purposely told us that the plane will land at LA X so we all don't freak out and burn their studio down when we see it next January. Or it is a total psych and the Jugheaders pop to the Base of the Statue and the war begins? Please do a column that hypothesizes about what would be different on the island if we had a reset. Would the reset come full circle and erase that any of the O815-ers went back to 1974? If they never crashed then they would not have been there to flash back. That means Sayid would not have shot Ben Linus and Ben would not be an Other. Or would it have happened anyway since he wanted to get away from Roger? The universe always self corrects so we may not know what would and would not happen. but if anyone can get the odds on events, it would be you. thanks!
I firmly believe the event ending season 5 (Juliet setting off the bomb) is the work of Jacob and not the man in black. I don't see any other impression that could be left with Jacob saying "their coming" and the man in black looking concerned before pushing him into the fire. "They" have to be the lostaways and I believe the bomb going off somehow sets the events in motion that bring the lostaways to Jacob's aid.
But I do agree: the end of season 5 cannot just be a complete reset. Somehow, the events of the past have to influence our beloved characters or it will ruin the whole show. I firmly believe the plan is in place for this to happen, but like most lost fans, I do share with you the nervousness that hole that has been dug cannot be climbed out of.
Excellent essay, Ryan! I'm tempted to quote my favorite parts, but I'd basically have to quote the whole thing!
I just read (starting from the bottom) the other six comments, and it reminded me of my favorite new game: Figuring out why "the zapper" deleted certain letters from certain words. My current favorite: the word for a non-fiction film -- do***entary.
(Just keep in mind that with this game, as with all the previous ARGs, that nothing is canon.)
this actually reminds me of my original theory when we saw the wreckage of 815 in Ep 4.3: that there was a split in the time line when seth norris (greg grunberg) and lapidus (jeff fahey) switched piloting duties so that in one timeline lapidus crashed the plane in the ocean and in another timeline norris crashed the plane on the island. i thought this was supported initially by the ambiguity of where the plan came from and how upset the science team was.
but then they had ben blaming widmore and vice verse for the wreckage (and i'm still not convinced who is telling the truth), which i still think is a booooring answer.
even if the first scene of Ep 6.1 is Oceanic 815 landing at LAX with shannon, boone, mr eko, and everyone getting off the plane, it will not mean that everything was a dream. (even Dallas got *ucked because of crossover events with Knots Landing) but Darlton will have a lot of 'splaining to do in 15 episodes!!!!!!
I haven't looked at this site before so forgive me if this is an exhausted topic but what I am curious about is -Why does MiB have to go to such great lengths to get someone to harm/kill Jacob, when after Ben stabs Jacob, MIB/Locke kicks him into the fire while he is still breathing no less? It would seem like MiB could do what he wanted to with Jacob if he could kick him into a fire pit setting him aflame. Am I missing something or is that not a pretty direct ***ualt on someone? Maybe Ben stabbing Jacob changed the rules or something but that doesn't neccessarily make sense to me. As for the new season Matthew Fox said it would be confusing at first, that leads me to believe that what happens to the characters is more complicated than simply scene of a plane landing at LA airport. The first episode I think is titled LA X, which isn't LAX, leading me to belive that they at least do not make it to their destination, whether that be them crashing again in a new timeline, or simply the characters being transported to their current time. What I think you are overlooking is the possibility of all the main characters lives being completely different than originally, to the point that sun and jin are happily married, jack and his father are on good terms, and Kate is not a fugtive at all and hasn't ever had to kill anyone. This is a far stretch I know but it is still a possibility.