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Twitter'Light vs. Dark' in 'Lost': Sawyer's boar
Given that we've just featured the Sawyer-centric episode "Outlaws" in our Unappreciated "Lost" Theatre series, I figured we could bring another series back into the light: Light vs. Dark. I'm in a series kinda mood this week. Blame Bob Dylan. I usually do.In any case, showing "Outlaws" reminded me that I'd forgotten an important instance in Season 1 in which we might have seen the handiwork of the show's potentially two biggest architects: Jacob and The Man in Black. Since this series strives to bring their previously hidden presence into the light, let's grin and boar it while looking once again at "Outlaws." See what I did there? I'm all punny and stuff. (I was going to call the ep "boar-ing," and then realized I made that exact joke over a year ago when recapping this article. I am nothing if not consistent.)
The Episode: "Outlaws"
The Sequence: Throughout the episode, a boar stalks Sawyer in an unnaturally specific fashion. Sawyer gradually realizes that, despite all impossibility, the boar contains the spirit/essence/memory of Duckett, a man that he killed in Australia just a few weeks earlier. Sawyer vows vengeance against the boar for the animal's constant attacks, going so far as trying to anger it by kidnapping one of its piglets. When finally confronted face to face with the boar, Sawyer lowers his gun, unable to pull the trigger.
The Case for Jacob: After the initial boar attack, Sawyer follows the boar into the jungle, where he hears The Whispers for the first time. Among the unintelligible noise is a clear phrase: "It'll come back around," a line that not only harkens to the last words of the man Sawyer killed but also unwittingly predicts the majority of Season 5's plot. Were Duckett's spirit placed into this boar, it would be the type of indirect "nudging" that Jacob specializes in. The repetitive use of "It'll come back around" stands as a preparation for atonement. In other words, "You will have the chance to someday right this wrong."
The Case for The Man in Black: The boar stands in for Sawyer's guilty conscience, the same one that allowed Sawyer to be tortured and beaten for a crime he didn't commit in "Confidence Man." The Man in Black uses the animal to overtly provoke Sawyer to the point of violence in order to reinforce his own low sense of self and return him back to the path of revenge that has dominated his life. "It'll come back around" stands a preparation for repetition: in "Battlestar Galactica" terms, all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. The Man in Black sends the boar to reinforce the fact that Duckett's blood will only form the base coat of the others that will inevitably follow.
The Zap2it Opinion: Tough call. I wrote both of those paragraphs as thought exercises in order to try and complicate your instinctual choice on the matter. And yet, I've gone and muddled up my own thoughts on the matter. But I'm going with Jacob: his visit to Sawyer at his parents' funeral indicates that he has great hopes for James Ford, and understands that the boar might help start the process of forgiveness that will be important if he's going to grow into the type of soldier that will help him during the end game of the series.
What do YOU think?
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Ryan - enjoyed the post. One question. In you opinion, do you think that this and questions like these will actually be explained in the final season? This is the kind of stuff I actually really want to know. It is a seemingly insignificant and silly event with the boar, but in fact, if you understood what was going on here, you probably understand everything. I gotta admit that I'm having doubts they'll explain it. What do you think?
Hey Ryan,
I read your comments often and I truly appreciate your insight. However, I've noted your struggle to extricate "light" and "dark" in this and other cases, and I've wondered whether or not these cases can merit being placed in "light" or "dark" territory. Some individuals (perhaps even on this forum) have stated that Jacob and MIB represent two forces which must coexist, sort of like a ying and yang. That might explain why MIB couldn't kill Jacob as easily as he wanted to. Others have suggested that the both parties answer to a higher power (such as the Island itself). Is it possible that this third, supposedly neutral party is responsible for the Moth, Claire's dream, etc., to test the individuals on the Island and both Jacob and MIB are trying to take advantage of such events for their own purposes? I doubt that makes any sense, but just wanted to take a shot at it.
First, I really have to say how much I miss you covering Fringe. There wasn't even an re-cap this week for the show. *sigh*
I do think that MIB and Jacob are ruled by some higher power and have said so since we met Jacob on that beach. That, to date is still my favorite scene since the show's inception. James' encounter with the boar, imo, is all Jacob. It's a test to see if James has made "progress" (to use one of Jacob's words). It is also, to me, the beginning of a kinder, gentler James Ford and the first step in putting Sawyer to rest.
Totally possible that there's another power above those two. It could be "The Island," could be "God," could be the energy at the core of the Island itself, it could be the autistic kid from "Flashforward,"
Or it's something actually simpler: the survivors of the crash. I argued before that Jacob and The Man in Black are derivations of the psychic energy of those who find their way to the Island. They are "home-grown" gods of a sort, a combination of psychology and geology only possible in that particular place. It was based on an application of Gaiman's "American Gods."
http://blog.zap2it.com/lost/2009/05/gods-once-lost-perhaps-now-found.html
@Joseph: I see your point that reducing the struggle to "Light vs. Dark" is a bit simplistic given what we've seen from Jacob and The Man in Black, but the title of the series comes from Locke's line about backgammon in the pilot. Plus, it's catchier than "Murky and Murkier," in my humble opinion.
@Zap2itRyan: As usual, I don't think anyone could have said better what you postulated in your "Gods once Lost" article. I wanted to include that the aforementioned "higher power" could very well be humans, but I didn't want to complicate things. In any case, if human will is what gives MIB or Jacob their respective power, wouldn't that contradict MIB's original fatalism to begin with?).
Or, MiB is man's capacity for self-destruction, and derives from our baser instincts. He's the Cabin Christian to the Blue-Suited Christian. He's the yin to Jacob's yang. He's the side of us that wants to quit when things are hard, to respond to conflict with violence, to take the easy way out whenever possible.
It's not as simple as calling him the "devil," unless you look at the devil in the same associative way as coming from the collective psyche of man as opposed to an entity pre-existing us.
I hope it's Jacob, for all the reasons Ryan and others mentioned.
"...look at the devil in the same associative way as coming from the collective psyche of man as opposed to an entity pre-existing us..."
I think I finally understand -- and I like it. (And it ties in well with my tremendous fondness for the big reveal at the end of Forbidden Planet regarding the nature of the monster.)