Carrie

"What happens if there are others like her? What happens to the world?"

Stephen King's novel Carrie has been seen many times in the Lost series. In A Tale of Two Cities, it's the book club book chosen by Juliet. In Not in Portland we see it on a nightstand in Juliet's sister's home. Also, Ben is reading it on One of Us, in a flashback, in preparation for the book club.

Some Key Points in Bullets:

• Carrie White is telekinetic.
• Who on the island is telekinetic? It seems Walt is, and maybe even Jacob or Ben.
• The novel purports that TK is genetic (p. 233) perhaps there is some sort of test for the gene, and this could be one of the things going on with the island.
• In the Room 23 V-cast we see a load of dead birds on the ground after something Walt has done. What if the birds smashing into walls and windows is only a side effect from what Walt is doing with his mind. Sort of like the town's people just "knowing" Carrie is behind what's going on.
• What if Jacob's cabin chaos is also a side effect of him using TK to try to communicate with Locke.
  
• Carrie makes the things in the town happen by picturing it in her mind. Could this be what happens in Room 23? The flashes on the screen allow the viewer to make things happen according to what the pictures suggest?

• Throughout the book, Carrie hears a constant inner voice. It drove her to practice her TK, it drove her to kill her mother, and it drove her to destroy her school and town.

• The town "knew" that Carrie was causing all of the things going on without anyone telling them or anyone really seeing her do it. It was like she was in their minds telling them what she was feeling and doing. It was like they were able to hear her inner dialogue in their minds.
  
• Could this be how Ben tells Harper what he wants her to do, or how he communicates with the others when he is captured?
• The book has a lot of blood in it. It's all stemmed from blood, from Carrie's first period , to pig's blood flowing over her at the prom, to the blood of the town that flows when she begins her reign of terror and destruction. Carrie's blossom into womanhood and with it her ability to become pregnant is the catalyst for all that happened in the story.
  
• Carrie's mother thinks that womanhood is dirty, conception is dirty, and as a matter of fact viewed her own pregnancy as terminal cancer before she knew better.
• To Carrie's mother, sex as painful, sinful, bad, and dirty.
• Ben feels that Alex (having sex) becoming pregnant would be catastrophic, as all pregnant women on the island die.
• We see Kate struggle with having sexual relations with Sawyer as she thinks she is pregnant.
  
• For the longest time Jin was very protective of Sun showing her body too much, as if it was sinful or shameful for a woman to do that.
  
• The Prom was to be a new start for Carrie. Almost everyone viewed her differently (like Roger Linus and his new start on the island?).
  
• The chaos in town was very reminiscent of the chaos in Jacob's cabin when he and Locke go there. Is Jacob like Carrie, and if so does he lose control of what he is able to do when he gets upset?
  

Losties Versus Carrie:

• Juliet- She proclaims that Carrie is her favorite book. Is this because she identifies with Carrie on some level?
  
• She was sent to the island as a new beginning. She was told by Ben that she was needed but was lied to about how long for, and also as to the circumstances of her stay. This is like Carrie, who was led to believe the prom would be wonderful, but was then subjected to pig's blood on her head and ridicule just like always, even though that was not what was intended.
  
• The kids at the prom sort of adopted a mob mentality and in their hysterics resorted to laughter at Carrie because that's what they had known in the past. Is this what Juliet being branded was all about? She was just a victim of what the inhabitants knew to be the thing to do in crisis?
• Walt- He seems to be telekinetic, and so was Carrie.
  
• Is this what makes him special, or does it make him an outcast. Is his "specialness" what makes his step-father wary of him.
  
• Is he unable to control the things that he is able to do (the birds), like Carrie was at the end of the book?

• Ben- Like Carrie, he is the sort of person that would invite ridicule if he were in the real world. One of those strange, maniacal people that no one really gets. I wonder if he didn't take over power and make everything "his", would one of the bodies in the pit have been him, rather than he being a huge cause of all the chaos that went on the day of the purge.
  
• In a way I wonder if the purge as an idea was fine for him, like Carrie making her mind stronger and practicing her TK (flex). As she got more upset though, it sort of got out of her control, until the chaos from the prom just really led to her destruction. It started happening and she just couldn't and wouldn't stop it. I wonder if the purge became like that? An ultimate revenge for Ben against his father that just sort of spiraled out of control, but he wouldn't and couldn't stop it.
• Jacob- Like Carrie, it seems that whoever or whatever Jacob is, he has some weird abilities that allow him to do the things that he can do. Is he telekinetic?
• He seems to cause all of the stuff in his cabin to fly around, and catch on fire. He makes his cabin hop around the island, and he can't be seen by everyone. I'm going on the idea here that it is indeed Jacob that is making all of this happen and not actually someone else like Locke or Ben (whether willingly or unknowingly by them).

Final Bullets:

• I sort of want to say Carrie White is telekinetic and so is Walt...the end. I want it to be as simple as that, but I also re-read this book before Season 4 began. We now know there is a heck of a lot more going on on that island than people being able to move things with their minds.
• What if it really is that simple though? Maybe Stephen King was onto something when he writes about TK being genetic. Maybe having the TK gene in combination with getting near the island, and being exposed to electromagnetism makes Desmond get unglued in time. Could this be what Ben is trying to get a handle on?
• Wiki has quite a lengthy entry on Psychokinesis (aka Telekinesis), and often lumps teleportation into the theme and term of TK.
• I'm also curious as to why this book in particular is Juliet's favorite. What about that story strikes a chord with her? Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, but in my experience for something to be your "favorite" you really need to identify with it on a deeper level.
  

Coming Soon: VALIS by Philip K. Dick

The Turn of the Screw

It was as if, at moments, we were perpetually coming into sight of subjects before which we must stop short, turning suddenly out of alleys that we perceived to be blind, closing with a little bang that made us look at each other--for, like all bangs, it was something louder than we had intended--the doors we had indiscreetly opened.

The Turn of The Screw makes its appearance in season one where it marks the hiding place of the Swan Orientation Film. There were two comparisons between the book and the show that I wanted to focus on, they each leave me with questions and they each get a bullet:

Juliet’s Story?

• The first thing I was struck by was the way that the governess was hired and eventually was transported to Bly. To me it seemed to parallel Juliet’s story. The governess recalls the circumstances of her hiring as something that she, “…took a couple of days to consult and consider. But the salary offered much exceeded her modest measure, and on a second interview she faced the music, she engaged.” That was pretty much Juliet’s story. She was made an offer, the money would enable her to do so much and the research aspect of the position was hardly something she could pass up. Yet, she was hesitant to take the job on the island as she didn’t know what it entailed, and for the fact that she would be cut off from her family. Turn of the Screw even goes on to detail the travel arrangements of the governess which include long hours in a “swinging, bumping coach” to a stopping place where they are met by another vehicle that would take her to the house, This is very much like the plane ride and eventually the sub that took Juliet to the island.
  

• When the governess arrives at Bly she instantly is struck by how perfect the children are. Even Miles, who was expelled from school for “something”, can do no wrong. She is quick to see small acts of "badness" as flaws in them and she thinks they are becoming corrupted by the ghosts she keeps seeing. I wonder if that’s how we’re meant to see the island, and specifically is how the island was sold to Juliet. It was meant to be her perfect haven for research. Is that one of the reasons this particular book leads to The Swan Orientation Film? DHARMA was billed as this perfect place, where research could be done without financial limitations or pesky regulations. A place where Juliet could do her research, or where Roger and his son Ben could start a new life and leave their hardships behind. All of the characters that have willingly (Kelvin) signed up for island duty seem to be under the impression that they are signing on to a place that is good, just, and the answer to what they have been looking for. Much like the governess taking the position where she finds the children to be perfect. She learns that Flora and Miles are not perfect, just as the DHARMA recruits learn the same about the island. The orientation films want try to paint us a rosy picture of perfection, while at the same time alluding to something being afoot indicating “the incident” and that the computers should not be used to try to communicate with the outside world. Nothing is as perfect as it initially seems…but we already knew that about the island didn’t we.
  

Ghosts or Madness?

• The second thing that stood out was the ghosts, and seeing people that are not there. Throughout the book the governess sees what she thinks are the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. We are never really certain if she actually sees the ghosts or not, as no one else seems to see them (maybe Miles and Flora, but we're never really sure). She thinks the children are being taken over by the ghosts who are causing them to be bad. It seems that indeed at the end Miles dies because of seeming otherworldly intervention.

• I find it interesting that this character is haunted by the ghosts of people that no one else sees. How many times on Lost have we see the dead walking, and appearing to individual characters only? Jack sees Christian Shepard, Eko sees Yemi, Ben sees his mother. On another level Hurley sees Dave, and again we have the semi transparent shapes of Walt and Jacob. They certainly could be dead, but we don’t know for sure. Ultimately though, we have lots of characters seeing people that for all intensive purposes should not be there.

• In the book it seems that the governess might be going mad. Is that what we are supposed to wonder about the characters on Lost? Are the things they think they are seeing (the impossible things) real, hallucinations, or their minds slipping into madness? Is there some kind of mass hysteria going on here, where like the governess, the characters are trying desperately to pull someone else into their delusions?
  

• In the story Mrs. Gross and Flora eventually cast the governess aside. Becoming horrified at her behavior and delusions, as well as frightened of her. Flora and all of her things are removed from the bedroom of the governess and she is left by herself. Mrs. Gross, claims to believe the governess, then takes Flora away, but not before disobeying her direct order to keep Miles and Flora apart. I wonder if something is being hinted at here. Ben and Locke are the only ones that we know of that have seen Jacob. Up until now it seems the others are willing to accept Ben's word on Jacob. But what if this book is foreshadowing for us some things to come? Perhaps the others will begin to be less accepting of the idea of Jacob and will eventually think that Ben and Locke are going mad. Maybe they think that already, Like Mrs. Gross suspected early on that the governess was acting strange, but kind of went along with it because of her stature in Bly.
  

Final Bullets:

• Is Ben Miles? Is he being bad because he can, and following ghosts or so it seems. Is Ben really as bad as we think he is, or are we just seeing him from the wrong point of view?

• Is Sawyer Miles? Is he being bad because he can, not really following ghosts, but certainly making choices based on the ghosts in his past.

• We were shown this book twice in season one. Were the writers trying to foreshadow Juliet and her story, and/or some sort of impending madness that will soon come to a head?

Later this month: Of Mice and Men

S3E16: One of Us - General comments.

• Richard Alpert seems to be running the US side of things. He didn't go to the Island with Juliet and was apparently still out there the day of the crash. But now he is on the island at Ben's request. What is his interest in there being new people on the island?
  
  
• Why wouldn't they even let Juliet's sister onto their US base? Was it just to avoid her knowing anything? If so why not make her leave after reaching the main building. Is it perhaps that they in their racist way didn't want someone not on Jacobs list to go onto Other soil, like they consider that base to be an embassy and therefore under Others law.
  
  
• Jacks a bit heavy handed in protecting Juliet. Is he really just giving her 100% trust? Or is he just faking it and doing things in his usual headstrong way in which he aproaches everything else.
  
  
• Juliet can't have been convinced just by the absense of cancer, unless there are a lot more Others. But she must have witnessed something of the island's healing powers. She must also believe that this Jacob has healing powers and I doubt Juliet would take it on faith. Jacob is starting to seem more and more like some kind of ancient god. Probably a stone face that shoots flames and speaks with a booming voice.
  
  
• While it is true that sometimes a spade is just a spade, I'm not totally convinced Juliet is 100% on board with her role as a plant. Plus I would have to admit to being a little disapointed that someone that appears to be obviously a plant actually turned out to be a plant. I think we all called the Claire thing would be her supposed way in to the group (though I don't think anyone thought it was orchestrated via implant, that suggests they had it planned a long time back).
  
  
• I suspect that to get to the island without disruption the sub has to dive really deep and that people who's bodies aren't used to the high pressure may suffer an amount of discomfort. Perhaps part of the apparent super strength of some others (Ethan) is just an indicator of some kind of high pressure strength training. Or at least the strength is why they can sit around playing cards while at such pressures. Ethan did comment about "the last leg of the trip".
  
  
• An alternative to the above may be that some kind of surgeory was performed on Juliet, but personally I think it is to do with the journey at this time.
  
  
• I can't take credit for this one but it is a good catch. In the Lost experience, Mittlewerk apparently cured Pete Thompsons cancer. That was something they never really gave us all the details on during the experience. That doesn't mean this is all tied to Mittlewerk, but it does make it likely that this fact was a secret Easter Egg from the experience.