The Last Mile

So here we are at last, the final outing. Will it answer all of our questions? I doubt it, but it should answer more then a few.

First of all I have to apologise for my absence throughout most of this season. This season has been an unusual one, with the answers/new questions ratio finally tipping in favour of answers there has just been a whole lot less to debate and discuss and many of the pieces have fallen fairly neatly into place, pretty much where we expected (such as with Jack being the chosen one). However, I have really enjoyed this season and am looking forward to the finale, even though it means the end of an era.

At this stage we think we know a lot, but of course Lost is a show that likes to show us that we really know nothing. So what do I think we know? Well on the topic of Jacob, Adam (I’m going to refer to the current incarnation of the Smoke Monster as Adam as it’s the only name that character has ever been given), and the light:

• The island is older then Jacob and Adam, so it’s story pre-dates theirs and we are yet to see it (and it’s possible we won’t).
  

• The “Light” at the centre of the island is very important. Should it be destroyed it would be very bad for everyone. We don’t know why.
  

• Should someone go into the light they become a Smoke Monster and are tied to the island (presumably by the light).
  

• Being tied to the island inevitably leads a Smoke Monster to want to destroy the light and so the island needs a protector.
  

• While the island has a protector only they and people they allow can find the light. This is why Jacob needed a replacement and why the island needed a protector even before Adam became a Smoke Monster. It also seems Smoke Monsters can’t harm the protector or potential protectors (not sure how that one works).
  

• It seems very likely (given the ancient hieroglyphs) that Adam was not the first smoke monster. If that is so, then it seems it can be destroyed. Unless the non-Adam Smoke Monster was not sentient as such and could be controlled by the Protector (perhaps used to kill Adams camp). Perhaps the suggestion here is that it can be cleansed of the human spirit inhabiting it.

All that still leaves the big questions: When did all this start (the light, island and any proto-Smokeys) and how does it effect the outside world.

So how about how things will turn out on the island? Here are a few thoughts:

• It seems to me that Ben wanted to know what Widmore knew and the only way to reliably get that info was to have him die and get Miles to use his ability to get the info. He knows he couldn’t trust Widmore to tell him, nor could he trust Widmore to tell the truth to Adam or Adam to tell him the truth. If there is one thing Ben knows really well it is deception after all! This suggests why they spent time making sure Ben could get in contact with Miles via the walkies.
  

• Desmond is obviously key to both Widmore and Adam’s plans. He also seems to be key to what is going on with the sideways reality. So that suggests that the two are very much linked together themselves. Can Desmond be consciously active in both realities and working towards a goal tied in both?
  

• We’ve all no doubt noticed that for most of the Losties the sideways reality is significantly better then the Island reality. Most notably for all of the ones that are dead in the Island reality. But will it turn out to be a way for the Island reality guys to have a happy ending or is it some kind of Devils Paradise? It could just be a side effect of damaging the islands light by nuking near it’s source (perhaps suggesting that if the island is destroyed it would un-write all of time?), but then why all the action over there?

To be honest I do not have a firm theory for this conclusion and that is really the way I prefer it at this stage. It’s also important not to forget while all the mysteries are being answered that there will be a number of personal stories concluding in this episode. Despite all the complexities and puzzles of Lost is has always really been about the characters. For the most part their personal stories could be considered concluded already, but I think we can still expect more.

Anyway, that is all I have. Like everyone else I will just have to watch and find out. So to everyone, good luck and Namaste.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

"If there's no meaning to it," said the King, "that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any."

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
This book is nonsense! This is also a very long post, but keep in mind it includes two books and SUPER SKINNY Blogger format makes it look longer. There was so much to include, that it became overwhelming, so I decided to look at each book separately and just sort of compare and contrast things from the show. Also, I will look at some of the larger themes present.

Themes:
Let me begin by saying that I am a big supporter of the idea that Ben could well be a twin. So I found it quite relevant that throughout the book there was this theme of Alice thinking that she was someone else (Mabel, her sister, even the cat Dinah) and also that the White Rabbit thought she was someone else as well (he mistook her for his maid).

• This quote in particular stood out for me, "...for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.”But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!""

• It begs the question, is someone on the show pretending to be two people...or perhaps two people pretending to be one person.
• As I said, I am of the mind that Ben is perhaps doing this. His back healed awfully fast...maybe his twin is acting as Ben until the other half is healed. Also I feel that Ben has two distinct sides. One seems stammering and unsure, while the other is cold and maniacal.
• I also tend to think that the pretending to be more than one person applies to Kate, Sawyer, and even Sun and Jin. Kate and Sawyer literally taking on different identities and acting as if they are someone else. Jin and Sun on the other hand, are acting toward each other. Jin acting like he is not the hired muscle that beats and kills people for her father, and Sun acting like she is not in love with someone else.

Along with the dual person theme we see a huge theme of change in the story, both size and shape. Alice is constantly growing and shrinking, the baby literally becomes a pig, the white roses are painted red, and the Cheshire Cat is always going through various states of visibility.

• I think that the characters on Lost are certainly going through huge amounts of changes. Some have been healed, and that is a huge change. But there are subtle ones as well:

• Charlie has kicked his drug habit.
• Claire has become a mother
• Juliet has become an accomplice
• Danielle has become a recluse
• Hurley is finding his purpose
• Michael became a true parent
• Locke is becoming part of the island

Observations:

• Throughout the story questions never seem to get answered and distraction is used to divert Alice from further pursuit.

• Much like Ben or Richard Alpert and their answers to the others and Locke about just what is going on on the island.

• The whole book is just nonsense and Alice is trying to make sense of what is going on throughout it.

• In truth there really is no sense to make. The characters have no idea that they live in nonsense, so really there is nothing there for them to figure out. It only seems abnormal to Alice because she is an outsider.
• The Others I think have gotten this way. They have been on the island for so long that they have just sort of accepted what goes on there to a degree, as normal. They really no longer question things because it's just the way it is. Things like a plane falling from the sky and infiltrating the survivors, taking children, and watching someone who is supposed to kill their father all seem normal to them at this point because daily life is just that bizarre.
• Alice seems to have trouble remembering verse that she should know. It ends up coming out all wrong and she can't make sense of it. I wonder if the island has that effect on people. Maybe the flashbacks we have seen could be memories that are remembered wrong. OR maybe the island simply makes you forget what the right thing is. Things you were supposed to know are now replaced by nonsense, and it’s somehow normal.

• Food makes Alice shrink and grow throughout the book. Could this idea be reflected by the food drops and the DI food that the survivors are eating? Could there really be drugs in the food that are making things happen to the people who eat it?

• Who on Lost is most like the Cheshire cat?
• I think Jacob is a good choice because he is literally transparent. However, Ben is also a good candidate as we haven't really seen all of him yet.
• Also, Danielle as she sort of pops in and out it seems when the time is convenient.

• In the end, even though Alice wakes up, Wonderland is still with her (the idea spreads to sister and to her children later in life). This certainly sounds like Jack to me, now that we have seen flash forwards to his life off of the island.

"...Alice began to remember that she was a Pawn, and that it would soon be her turn to move."

Through the Looking-Glass:
While reading this book I felt very much like Alice must have when she was running with the Red Queen. Rushing and running so very fast but only to find you're running to stay in the same place. There were so many things in this book that could compare to Lost, but I'm struck again by the nonsense, as well as the fact that again, Alice dreams the whole thing.

Themes:
Like in the first book, we find Alice is again involved in a game. In AiWL it was cards, and in TtLG it's a large game of chess. Both games of skill and process, however playing cards is more a game of chance and diversion where chess is a game of skill and strategy. She has moved from luck of the draw to skill and thinking.

• The Losties have had fate and chance deal them their hand in the first two seasons. Falling on the island, it seems by chance, and sort of just playing the hand they have been dealt.

• Later they meet The Others and are learning strategies to survive, beat them at their own game, and get off the island. No longer so much chance as strategy and skill being put to better use.

Alice keeps progressing through the Looking-Glass world, following the game and going forward. At one point she gets frustrated because she keeps coming back to the door to her house, and she doesn't want to go back until the adventure is finished. "I'm NOT going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again--back into the old room--and there'd be an end of all my adventures!" (Chapter 2).

• I think this is the embodiment of Locke. He sees the island as his adventure, his purpose. He is not going back home (off of it) until he sees the end of the adventure.
  
• This could also embody Ben, in that he is home on the island (and even lies about being born there). He really has nowhere to go if he leaves the island (that we know of) and seems eager to stay and do what Jacob needs him to do.
  

Throughout the book Alice is reminded by many characters (the gnat, The Red Queen) to remember her name. She even encounters a forest where she forgets who she is, but remembers as soon as she walks out.

• I think that this is one of those things that ALL of the Losties are experiencing. The island is giving them the opportunity to remember who they really are, or at least remember circumstances that have gotten them to the places they are in life. The island is giving them the freedom to recover their names and be rid of the parts of themselves that they are not happy with.

Observations:
When Alice first stumbles on the King and Queen chess pieces, she picks them up and puts them on the table. They can't see her and somehow reason that she is a volcano picking them up. Says the Queen, "Mind the volcano!...Blew-me-up," panted the Queen, who was still a little out of breath."

• This season we've been speculating about the volcanic properties of the island, whether it is doing something to the water, whether it's ash is being used somehow, and weather it is spewing these magnetic black-rocks all over the island.
  

• Alice wanders into a talking flower garden where a tiger lily tells her that flowers can always talk but only "when there's anybody worth talking to." Other flowers eventually chime in and Alice describes it as..."shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of shrill voices."
• This made me think of the whispers and how they seem to come from the forest. They begin as an almost rustle of the trees, and evolve into voices, much like the flowers.
• Are we experiencing a hallucination, on the show, of plants and animals sounding like voices, or is something much larger and unexplained going on? OR is someone integrating parts of the island into a sort of lucid dream (like Alice)?

• The Red Queen takes Alice up on to a hill to look over the Looking-glass Land and view the chess board.
• This really made me think of when Ben took Sawyer for a walk and showed him where they actually were in relation to the Lostie's camp.

• Could Tweedledee and Tweedledum represent a set of quarreling twins on the island (going back to my favorite Ben is a twin theory :D)

Smokey-isms:
"Here she checked herself in some alarm, at hearing something that sounded to her like the puffing of a large steam-engine in the wood near them, though she feared it was more likely to be a wild beast." (Chapter 4)

• At one point Tweedledee and Tweedledum are fighting and Alice wishes a crow would come and stop them. A crow does come and she describes it like a large black cloud descending upon them. To escape it, she runs into the woods rationalizing that the crow/cloud is far too large to squeeze between the trees to get at her.
• This is very reminiscent to when Juliet and Kate are handcuffed and running from Smokey. They hide in a tree and Smokey goes away.
• The crow comes because there is a conflict happening and/or Alice has willed it. It seems that Smokey has a way of showing up when some of the Losties are experiencing a conflict or commotion (the crash, Kate and Juliet yelling, etc.) or even when willed to arrive like with Locke and Eko.
• The Lion and the Unicorn call Alice a "monster" just because they don't know what she is. Are we and the Losties doing that with our smoke "monster"?
  

Final Bullets:

• Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (info here and here) is a real for honest thing!

• People who suffer from it see objects as smaller/larger or up-close/far-away at the same time (micro or macropsia).
• This syndrome can be caused by migraine, schizophrenia, psychoactive drugs, epilepsy, viral mononucleosis or Epstein Barr.
• Sufferers also experience distorted movement of time and distorted sound perception.
• So could this be "the sickness" or part of it?
• Could this be where the sounds of the whispers come from?
• Could there be psychotropic drugs in the food (alluded to in TLE with Apollo Bars) that are making their normality slightly skewed?

Both stories end with Alice waking from a dream. I don't even want to speculate that THIS will be how Lost ends...I get light headed and nervous just thinking about that, but I will end with this quote from TtLG describing The King, as Alice comes upon him sleeping on the grass:

Said Tweedledee, "Why, you're only a sort of thing in his dream! If that there King was to wake, you'd go out--bang!--just like a candle!"

s3e15: Left Behind - The Smoke Monster

• I have said before that I suspected the fence was to stop Smokey. But what that suggests is that Dharma knew about Smokey and created the defense system to stop him getting close. The lack of surveillance makes sense if the only threat at the time was Smokey and they were certain there would be no breach. But here is an interesting question: Did Dharma create both the sonic wall *and* Smokey (as the Cerberus defense unit) and if so why create something so dangerous that they need a defense against it?
  
  
• It could be that Cerberus went a bit nuts and so they erected the defense area later, which also means that it went nuts before the Others took over as they don't seem so aware of what it is.
  
  
• It could be that the DI themselves became the others due to this virus that Danielle was talking about (increasing speculation that she is Dharma) and that Cerberus is partially organic and was affected by the same virus. But perhaps Cerberus turned first and they erected the sonic barrier before they all went ga ga themselves. The other possibility is that it was on the island before the DI (meaning it even had "vents" if it is indeed Cerberus).
  
  
• According to those puzzle things, which I assume are cannon, the CV's on the blast door map are Cerberus Vents. Now the other notations about Cerberus do seem to suggest it is our smoke monster, or at least that is what Dharma called it (I had always thought Dharma had created it, especially as they know the locations of the vents). It seems to fit name-wise. Multi-headed guard dog? I think we may be seeing the multi-headed aspect recently where we've been talking about Smokey’s different roles. Cerberus had three heads I believe (although sometimes depicted with more).
  So perhaps we have:
  1 - Watching/processes (taxi ticker noise etc),
  2 - interacting (in shape shifted form),
  3 - Eliminating threads (Roaring noise and obviously killing things).
  
  
• Cerberus' brother was - Hydra. He also had one further brother Chimera. Three camps of "Other"?
  
  
• As for the vents, well I'm assuming they are entrance/exit points for whatever Cerberus is. Perhaps an underground facility that is automated (maybe it's where the food drops come from too? -----Oooh maybe Smokey was the plane that dropped the food?). It could be that Locke was almost sucked down into one when Cerberus grabbed him.
  
  
• I think the smoke monster has a base that is rooted to the ground, but it can raise itself up from it like a snake. I don't think it could maneuver this well enough to go over the fence.
  
  
• "After the War, Hanso became the leading purveyor of high-technology armaments for NATO." - That was from the old THF website. We know for a fact Hanso knew about the island before the DI was there, due to Magnus Hanso. He almost certainly had checked it out and so with its special properties it makes sense he used to as a site to develop his weapons. So what if Smokey was one of those. A legacy from those days. Perhaps a lot of things were due to a legacy from those days. Or alternatively he continued the weapons work alongside the DI research.
  
  
• It appears that Smokey has "Flashed" Julliet, Eko and perhaps Locke. What do they all have in common? Well it seems they are all on that list that the others are always going on about (Jacobs List). Don't forget Eko was meant to be capture from the Tailies camp but he fought off his captors. So given that Smokey seems to act aggresively to those on the list, making some kind of judgement this seems to add further support to my suspicion that Smokey/Cerberus is Dharma Created. As for why Dharma would want to kill people on the list, I'd have to point you back in the direction of the Valenzetti Equation and Mittlewerks plan to purge the whole of humanity of people on his list. Could it be the smaller percentage rebelled and decided they were the chosen ones of a new world?