Leading into tonight's finale, I thought I'd attempt to jot down a few ideas...
HUGE QUESTION #1: Can the characters change the past?
Early-on in Season Five, Faraday said "Whatever Happened, Happened." Then, later, he said something along the lines of having not-accounted for the variables of *people* and that, hey, maybe we can change the past. He then continued to concoct a plot where they would blow-up Jughead, thus preventing the hatch from being built, thus preventing the sky from turning purple and tacking down Oceanic flight 815. Sadly, Faraday died. However, Jack really likes the idea of having never encountered the Island, and wants to do future versions of Jack a solid and detonate Jughead himself.
A big part of this question is another question: Did Sayid change history by shooting Ben? We're lead to assume that at age 11 Ben is shot by Sayid. Shortly after he is taken to Richard Alpert and undergoes an experience that makes him *different* and erases his memory. Therefore, Ben's history was NOT changed by Sayid: that always happened. However, did Ben's mind get erased? Or is it part of Ben's tricky nature that he has always remembered Sayid, Juliet, Sawyer, Jack, Kate, etc... when he encounters them again in the 2004 post-crash era? So let's go ahead and label this issue MEDIUM QUESTION #1: Does Ben remember getting shot by Sayid? (This question encapsulating the issues of whether or not Sayid changed history, and if Ben's mind was truly erased, and how Ben's mind was erased if in fact it was erased.)
HUGE QUESTION #2: Is the Island all about redemption?
Whereas HUGE QUESTION #1 is more Season-Five specific, #2 is more meta, questioning the big-picture purpose of the Island. Is the Island a deity-like omniscient force? Probably. Is it good or evil? Does it want to deliver it's inhabitants from evil? Which inhabitants and why? Let's mull this over and attempt tackle this theory over the summer. Perhaps after re-watching the first five seasons...
But I will tie in this MEDIUM QUESTION #2: Do all of the leaders of the Others (Widmore, Ben, and Locke) turn evil? If so, why? When Ben was leader of the Others, did he resist redemption at some point? Was the infertility of his followers some sort of punishment for resisting salvation Island-style? SMALL QUESTION #1: Why can't the Others have babies, and when did this problem arise? We saw this season that Dharma folk could have babies, and of course Claire was able to have a baby on the Island... so why not Ben's Others?
HUGE QUESTION #3: What "war" is coming? Earlier this season Widmore warned Locke that a war was coming, and Locke should attempt to fight on the correct side. What is this war? Is it between Widmore and Ben, like I originally guessed? What sides to Widmore and Ben represent and what are their differing theologies? Is the War between Jacob and some other force (some have conjectured that Jacob is anti-Island, and that that's why Locke is now determined to kill Jacob)? Is the war between those who want to change history (Jack and team Jughead Incident) and those who find that undesirable (like Kate - who appreciates the experiences she underwent on the Island), and if so - how does Locke become a part of this battle when it's taking place in 1977 and he's in 2007?
MEDIUM QUESTION #3: Who is Richard Alpert? Was he part of the crew of the Blackrock in the 1800s? Was he a crew member or a slave? Is he somehow Egyptian? Perhaps in the same sense that the Four-Toed Statue seems Egyptian and there are hieroglyphs everywhere? How come he never ages? How come he bows down to the leader of the Others? What is his relationship with Jacob?
SMALL QUESTION #2: What is the point of the Ajira flight? It brought the O6, Locke, and Ben back to the Island, but what about these other "What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue" folk?
I'll end with this little note: someone once called the flash back episodes where you see our characters in their childhood years "Muppet Baby" episodes: hilarious!
Wow, there are a lot of questions there. But, it is Lost, so of course there are a lot of questions. I HOPE that the answer to the first question is that the characters cannot change the past - or the future, depending on how you look at it. That makes more sense to me, personally. Mostly, I have problems with the whole - if you change the past, you might make it so that you don't exist in the future, in which case, how did you come back into the past to change it - thing. So, I really hope that the answer is that they cannot change the past.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think that Ben remembers Jack and Kate and Sawyer, etc., though maybe not specifically being shot by Sayid.
I haven't thought too much about the other issues, but I'll meditate on them and get back to you.